


Hearts Across Time

by Thomas McQuinn (AtrydvonAschoen)



Series: The Impermanence of Wishes [2]
Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Advetures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-08-16
Updated: 2010-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-11 03:11:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtrydvonAschoen/pseuds/Thomas%20McQuinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Certain rules of reality are always taken for granted: the breadth of space, the push of wind, the warmth of light, the flow of time. To find his place in the universe and right what is wrong, he must be willing to rewrite the rules.</p><p>Just because you're not the main character doesn't mean you can't be the hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Darkest Before Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this, but haven't read part 1 of Impermanence, 'What Could Have Been'... I gotta ask, what're you doing here? Seriously?
> 
> Go read it first. Otherwise, you'll be a little lost.

They hadn't been driving for too long before Jade seemed to have noticed something was up. Dave knew she'd figure it out eventually, but even then, it took everything he could muster to not offer her a handkerchief or find some other way of drawing her attention up from her lap. He didn't like seeing her cry, even if it was all part of a trick.

He affected a nonchalant air, his chin propped on his fist, his eyes focused on the dim orange of the soon-to-be-rising sun, and wiped the expression from his face as she gasped; fishing a small key from his pocket, he turned his best 'gotcha' smirk her way, and unlocked the handcuffs.

"I did what I had to do."

She whipped her head forward, finally noticing Rose (he still didn't know how she avoided detection as a woman in uniform amongst a dozen cops, but decided not to ask), and then John plopped his hat on her head.

"By tha time they figyah us out, we'll be loooong gone."

Something didn't seem right... his voice was different. He looked over at Jade. She smiled at him.

"Buncha useless mooks," she laughed, softly.

Suddenly, the world erupted in a cacophany of gunfire.

\---

Dave sat up with a start, inadvertantly flinging the cat perched on his head skyward. Vodka Mutini yowled in surprise, but true to form, stuck the landing on the far arm of the overstuffed couch. Bleary-eyed, he surveyed the small studio apartment they called home: the stack of books on the table, their music gear set up in the corner, the makeshift entertainment center that currently contained a small CRT television, playing the opening eyecatch for Noirallegiance, Jade's new sandbox game.

A soft snoring drew his attention to the weight on his lower half, and he rubbed his eyes, frowning at the black-haired beauty who currently was drooling on his pants. She was wearing one of his shirts, and... well, what appeared to be nothing else but a pair of green underoos. He squinted. Was that a catspaw print? When did she get those?

Extricating his legs from her embrace, he tugged the afghan from the back of the couch and covered her with it before stumbling toward the kitchen nook, stretching and wincing as his joints protested to the movement after a long morning of absolute stillness.

Things were coming back to him: the club last night, coming home to find her looped out of her gourd from the cold medicine, being too drunk to be of much more help than to grumble that she should be sleeping and flop on the couch...

...no, wait, that wasn't right.

None of that had happened. It couldn't have happened. He abruptly began patting at his chest, where he knew there should've been a hole, and snatched up a small hand mirror.

A pair of emerald eyes stared, dumbstruck, back at him.

"Mmmh... I was comfy..."

He whipped about to stare in surprise as Jade propped herself on her elbows and smiled sleepily at him. "G'morrning," She yawned, and fumbled about for her glasses on the floor, a puzzled look on her face. 

"Where'd my..." they slipped a bit from where they'd been pushed up to her forehead by her sleeping position, and she shifted them down with a smile, sitting up.

"What the hell is going on?" Dave mumbled to himself, looking around. On the refridgerator was a calendar; judging by the numerous crossed days, today was the 12th of August. Beside it was a second, smaller calendar, with the 12th marked with an orange D magnet (_"'D' for Dave, silly!"_).

Jade stood, walking listlessly toward him. "Whs'amatter?" she squinted at the calendar, and nodded sagely. "Gotcha." She plucked the magnetized marker from its' perch above the calendar, and marked a neat little 'X' through the 12th, capping it with an air of authority. "Tadah." (_"I'll always keep it up to date, so you always know 'when' we are!"_)

She tucked the marker behind her ear and pressed a quick kiss to Dave's forehead before turning to address the fuzzy black abomination rubbing against her legs. "Alright, alright, I'll feed you, Mutie, hang on," she giggled, digging in the fridge and pulling out an unopened can of cat food.

_"I really must apologize for being a bother, but if my landlord found out I had a four-eyed mutant cat, he'd--" "Don't worry about it! We'll take good care of little Cutie-Mutie."_

Dave dragged his eyes away from the situation at hand, and crossed the apartment in a matter of seconds, looking out the window. Far below he could see cars passing by on a street he knew fairly well. He'd grown up in this apartment building; he was willing to bet that Bro was up in his suite recording some new puppet fetish video.

Jade laughed. "'Course he's not, silly. He's off being awesome somewhere on LOHAC!"

Dave stared at her like she'd just said he was doing the can-can on the ceiling. "What--"

"You're not awake yet, Dave. Why'd you go to sleep, anyway? Sprites don't need sleep." She picked her way across the apartment, sidestepping a briefcase (_my turntables are in there_) and wrapped him in a tight hug. Dumbstruck, all Dave could do was return it.

"You've been telling me my stories! Well, the other me. Thank you," She whispered, smiling down at him. 

Realization struck like a load of bricks.

"You're... _my_ Jade?" He said incredulously, and she nodded, smiling broadly. 

"I never got as far as my dream self dying, so when the real me died, my dream self was alive," She explained, pulling from his embrace and stepping away, almost tripping over Mutie. "Alright, I'm sorry I forgot, I'm goin'," She laughed, bending over and picking up the excited cat.

Dave's eyes nearly popped from their sockets at the view, and he whipped his head away, feeling heat rising to his face. "H-how are you here, then?" He asked, staring intently at the depiction of a dapper fellow in an overcoat and fedora proclaiming a group of guards to be a 'Buncha useless mooks' and firing half of his Thompson's drum clip into them.

Jade set Mutie on the counter and began working at the can with a can-opener. "Weeeell, after it happened, I woke up on Prospit and realized that if I was still alive in the dream world, maybe John made it too? So I went to check on him." 

She paused a moment, a sad look on her face, and shook her head, dumping the can of cat food into the dish, Mutie using her back as a step down as she did so. She gave the cat a gentle pat on the head as it dug into the moist food happily. "He wasn't there at all," She mumbled, folding the can in on itself and tossing it into the trash before turning to smile at Dave.

"So, I went to Derse! But you couldn't see me for some reason. I was the one that woke you up... or, I suppose I should say, I was the one that made you realize you were awake." She looked down, rocking on her toes, which Dave only then noticed were adorned with colored string, like her fingers. "No matter what I tried, with either you or Rose, neither of you could see me, or hear me."

Dave shivered involuntarily. He barely slept in the four months after her death, for the very reason of avoiding that which reminded him of her. Every time he slept, he could bring himself to do nothing in the dream world except scream and cry and tear things apart from sheer frustration. 

It was then that he finally listened to the dark gods that spoke to him; it was then that he cursed their names and was cut off from his dream self entirely. 

The look on her face told him Jade knew all too well. "They only wanted to help. They tried to suggest a few ways you could go back and fix everything, but you ignored them." She looked away, folding her arms together. "They suggested some things to me too." She shivered slightly, but turned her attention back to him with a smile.

"But it's good that you fixed everything! John's alive and the other me is alive, and you can finish the game!" She nodded, as if confirming what she had said. "So everything's alri--"

"Where are you now?"

She froze. "What--"

"Where did you go after I went back in time? After I caused the divergence?" He couldn't meet her eyes; his hands were balled into fists. "Rose went to sleep. Her dream self carried over, merged with the current timeline's dream-Rose.

Theoretically, that means the same happened to you. It means you merged with the dream-Jade of this timeline. But she's dead now too." He looked up at her, and the look in his eyes chilled her to the bone. "So what is this? Where are you now? What am I seeing, if this is a dream?"

The apartment was silent for the longest time before she spoke, softly.

"I'm dead."

His hands opened. His fingernails had bitten into his palms, and a small rivulet of blood, unnaturally bright orange, ran down the middle finger of his left hand.

"What you see here, what I'm saying, the things I'm doing... it's all a part of you, Dave." She stepped forward, taking his hand in hers and nuzzling it with her cheek; the orange stained her skin a pale green. She smiled sadly to him. "When they shut you off from your dream self, I made a deal with the dark gods... so I could be with you.

I wanted to be able to tell you it was alright... that I knew you'd be able to fix everything. I wanted to prove to you that no matter what, everything you did was for a good cause." She closed her eyes. "So, I allowed them to... merge me with your dream self. When you came into the past, I came with you. When you self-prototyped..."

"...you didn't merge with the other dream-Jade. You merged with me." She nodded, and smiled at him. "So I could help you with everything that'll happen later. Even if we think we're the main characters, the heroes of this story, we're still not. We're just pawns," she said, letting go of his hand and stepping away, her body shimmering like water and fading away.

"We're not the heroes of this story," Jade's voice repeated, as if everywhere and nowhere. "But we can do far more to help them together than we could alone."

The apartment seemed to fade around him, as if becoming liquid nothingness. Davesprite found himself alone in the void, yet at the same time, he felt... safe. Warm.

"Now wake up, Dave. We have work to do."


	2. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rewind: Set One: Noirallegiance

"An entity beyond existence has caused a disturbance, Dave."

Darkness surrounded him. He couldn't see his hands; he couldn't see anything at all.

"The Dark Gods don't have a name for it. It's different entirely from the purpose of Skaia and SBURB; something from another plane of reality altogether, outside of time and space."

Eternity, and back again, and the darkness was no longer dark. A silhouette, something akin to humanity yet altogether not, and profoundly disturbing. Did it see him? Or was this all his mind? No matter.

"Through force of will it came into being; through anger and audacity it took hold of our universe. Through our universe, it seeks to control all. It doesn't see its' mistake... yet."

The sillhouette expanded, grew, changed, became something like that which they fought and that which they never would see. Wordless voices sang colors into his mind and whispered shapes into his eyes and a dozen worlds appeared, slightly different each, save for two.

The silhouette descended, overflowing one of the two matching worlds, and began to spread from there to the others, branching out like fingers of darkness on darkness.

"We aren't the true universe, but rather one constructed as a... safety net. A parallel existence that runs alongside the prime universe. However, aspects of this one have changed; it's begun to evolve away from the true world."

Twelve worlds together alike and different, and two the same, yet one began to drift away from the other, taking the shadow with it. Its' grip on the prime world became tenuous.

"Too much longer, and this false universe, this 'second reality', will be different enough that it will recognize us for what we are. Too much longer and it will find the true universe hidden among the others."

The shadow leapt whole from the drifting planet to engulf the one untouched, and burst out in all directions, filling his vision with darkness once again.

"It seeks to control, to bend all to its' will. It will end all suffering, all hate, and all despair. It will also end all happiness, love, and joy. It is not insane. It is not angry. It merely believes that the very existence of imperfection is cause for complete annihilation."

Light swirled within his vision, coalesced, blended into something vaguely like reality and humanity

and

a world lit by a rising sun.

Dave lifted an orange-garbed arm to shield his eyes from the bright light, and a light, cheerful giggle reached his ears. He lowered his hand to blink rapidly at Jade, who sat across from him in the car's backseat, a slightly-too-large fedora on her head.

They were alone in the car, but he could hear movement behind it. He half-turned to look out the back window at the trunk lid.

"There's something in this world that will link us to the others, Dave," she said softly. He settled a confused look at her.

"Wait, what? We're--" He snapped his mouth shut at the sound of his own voice, a Texan drawl whittled down to near-nothingness by years of practice.

"We have ta find tha keys ta this puzzle, Dave. Tha answers lie elsewhere in each'a dese worlds, each'a dese alternate existences." She reached across the seat and took his hand in hers, the silken glove warm against his skin. "But we can't let on dat we are who we are."

The sound of a trunk lid shutting caused them both to jump, and she yanked her hand away with a flushed look on her face.

Dave felt like he was on autopilot, up and out of his side of the car and around to her side in the blink of an eye to hold the door open for her. Rose eyed him with a concerned air over the hood of the car, and he returned her gaze flatly. "What?"

"You're remarkably chipper for someone who was just trying to sleep off a bullet wound," Rose droned with a bemused smirk.

Raising an eyebrow, he nonchalantly doffed his jacket and tossed it onto the roof of the car. There was a heavy, leaden _thump_ from the impact, but there was no blood on his undershirt-- not even any sort of visible hole. The inside of his jacket was lined with some sort of chain mail.

"Take three rounds in the shoulder and two in the gut and tell me you're not gonna be prepared next time you think people're gonna shoot at you," he said smugly.

John laughed, slapping Dave on the back as he started to put on his sunglasses, a pair of small round things that almost didn't cover his eyes. He almost dropped them, wincing from the blow.

"Good ol' Dave, always ready for everythin'," the broad-shouldered goof chuckled, one of the large bags shouldered. "Y'mind getting your suitcase and helping me get the other bag inside?"

Dave turned to look up at the little two story town-house that served as their impromptu 'base', and shrugged, walking around the back of the car to pick up his suitcase. 

When he bent to grab the other bag, Jade snatched it up and swung it up over her shoulder, grinning at him. With a wink, she spun and marched up the drive toward the front door of the house.

Rose chuckled to herself as she walked past him. "Shown up by a lady," she said as she swished on by.

Rolling his eyes, Dave tucked the case up under his arm, pulled his garishly orange coat from the roof of the car, and followed her.

\---

"Glass or diamond?" John mumbled.  
A pause.  
"Glass," Rose replied after a moment.  
"You sure?"  
"I'm certain." A soft _plink_ followed.

Dave watched the two of them silently from the kitchen of the small home, sipping at a large mug of coffee and leaning against the counter. He had changed into a white linen button shirt and black slacks.

The sound of footsteps to his right alerted him to Jade's presence. She opened the cupboard beside him.

"Gotcha one already," He muttered over the rim of his cup.

She paused, looked down, and closed the cupboard, picking up the large blue mug and giving him a peck on the cheek before blowing steam from the top of the cup.

"So, find anything upstairs?" He mumbled, his eyes still focused on the pair sitting in the dining room hunched over a sizable pile of jewelry and broken glass. Between them sat a garbage pail with a small pile of glass in it.

"Hm-mm." She shook her head faintly, taking a sip, and made a face. "Blech! You drink it black?"

He shrugged. "No sugar, no milk. Hell, no fridge." He took another sip, and glanced over at her.

She'd not changed her clothes, opting to keep the midnight pinstripe pants and pale blue shirt, although she had gotten rid of the vest. The top two buttons of her blouse were open.

She flicked him in the arm, and he winced. "What was that for?" He muttered.

"Staring."

For another few moments, silence reigned in the small building, save for the two at the dining room table sifting through gold and jewels.

"Do we even know what we're looking for?" Dave asked after a moment.

"D'ja say somethin'?" John called, lifting his head and looking at them. Jade stifled a giggle at the sight of broad-shouldered John with a jeweller's monocle squinted in one eye.

Dave shook his head and waved a hand. "Don' mind us." He hid a smirk behind his coffee mug as John returned to his work.

"Diamond?"  
"John, that's far too big to be a diamond."  
"What? Maybe they made big diamonds?"  
"I've been doing this for years, John. That's glass, trust me."  
"Fiiine."

"No idea, but we'll know it when we see it," Jade said after a few moments, softly. "It won't look like anything from this world. They're all like that." She sighed. "Shouldn't we be helping them?"

"Rose knows what she's doing. John's just helping her 'cause he's got the hots for her. Leave it to them, they'll sort it all out."

"I do not!" John snapped indignantly, frowning at them.

"So you don't like me, John?" Rose affected a pout that Dave could tell was fake from all the way across the kitchen.

"Er, I mean, I do like you," he stammered after a moment, turning to face her.

"See? Told ya," Dave snarked, and slugged back the rest of his coffee with a grimace, rinsing the cup in the sink.

"--b-but I--"

"Really, John, I didn't think you thought of me that way," Rose responded with a purr, and the poor fellow began sweating as he spun back to look at her, the monocle popping out and rattling on the table. "Uh, I--"

"Y'better be gentle with my sister, there, Egbert, or we're gonna have words, yeah?" Dave called as he passed Jade on his way toward the stairs. The raven-haired girl huffed. "You guys! Stop confusin' him!"

"Calm down, John, I'm only joking," Rose said with a smile. "I know you're sweet for that blind girl back home. Now can we get back to separating the wheat and chaff?" She picked up the monocle and handed it to him before pulling a small fragment from the pile and scrutinizing it.

John faltered for a moment, and heaved a sigh, reaffixing the monocle and going back to the jewel he was examining.

\---

Dave sat on the edge of one of the two beds in the room he and John had picked for their own, staring at his own reflection in a dusty mirror across from him. Pulling the glasses from his face, his green eyes stared into glowing orange. A half-smirk formed on his face.

"Great, I'm some sorta fuckin' vampire now. Least I'm not sparkly." He idly stroked at his chin, feeling the rough rasp of stubble. Would a goatee suit him? He couldn't see himself with facial hair, but then, he was only thirteen.

Shrugging, he slipped the sunglasses back on and stood, cracking his knuckles. "Time to get this goose chase going," he mumbled, and began to dig through the room's contents.

Nothing in the drawers... nothing under the beds... nothing in John's bags except a few open letters written in a number of bright colors... nothing in his own bags...

Five minutes of searching, and the room had been thoroughly canvassed. Dave sat down and flopped back onto the bed with a sigh. "How the hell are we supposed to find this 'key'," he said flatly, "if we don't even know if it's nearby?"

"Easy!" Jade chirped.

A weight flopped on his stomach, and he coughed in surprise, hauling himself onto his elbows. Jade was standing over him with a broad grin on her face, and nodded to his music case, now sitting atop him.

"D'you remember what was in there?" She asked, sitting beside him on the bed as he sat up. He stared at the case for a moment, trying to remember.

"...drawing a complete blank," He muttered after a moment. Looking up, he raised an eyebrow, and nodded toward the mirror. "I think we should avoid mirrors while we're at this," He suggested.

Jade tilted her head and followed his gaze to the mirror. She appeared as a blue spectral silhouette of her child self, still clad in her atom shirt and buttoned skirt. She giggled softly.

"They can't see our real reflections, silly, only we can." The sight of that older-sounding voice matched by such a young face was disconcerting. "Unless they're like us, but then they'd know anyway. Anyway! Stop getting off subject!"

She placed a hand on the case in his lap. "Gaps in our memories as to certain objects and personal belongings are the clues to where each key is," she explained softly. "You're the only one that should know what the inside of this case looks like. If you can't remember what's in it, that means it's where the key is!"

Dave frowned at the black case in his lap. "That easy, huh?" He muttered. She nodded with a smile, and folded her arms on his shoulder, watching as he flicked up the latches.

"David Strider, Rose LaLonde, Johnathan Egbert, and Jade Harley! This is the FBI! We have you surrounded!" Dave bit out an epithet, snapping the latches shut again. "Come out with your hands up!"

"What happens if we use the key and get out right now?" He asked as he stood, leaning against the back wall of the room and peering out the window at the drive. Four black FBI vehicles sat in the drive, somewhere between six and eight men hiding behind them. He couldn't get a good view of them, but one had a bullhorn and they all looked well-armed.

"Um, I think we'll just... not be here any more. The original Jade and Dave will regain control, but not remember anything we've done or said, and this world'll continue on by itself." She frowned. "I don't want Rose or John to get hurt, but we have to hurry, Dave."

He nodded, frowning. "I know, I know... I also know that I have the knowledge of Bro's training, plus what I picked up from four months of ass-kicking." He glanced back at her, and she shook her head, standing quickly. 

"If you die here, we're all doomed. Don't do it, Dave," she pleaded.

He smiled. "I'm not gonna pirouette off the fucking handle, if that's what you're thinking. No, I'm going to do exactly as they say." He strode back to her and picked up the case, heading for the door. "I remember what's supposed to be in here... and I know it'll help. C'mon."

\---

Rose and John were crouched in the kitchen when the two of them came downstairs. John quickly waved them over, but Dave shook his head.

"I got everything planned, bro," Dave said flatly, which earned an odd look from the two of them. "Look, I don't have time to explain. Just trust me. Follow me, keep your hands up, and hit the floor when I give the signal."

"What are you talking about, Dave?" Rose whispered harshly.

Adjusting his grip on the case, Dave peered at her over his shades. "I learned some interesting things after Kansas," He explained. "And I'm going to get us out of this situation. Now, grab as much jewelry and shit as you can fit into your clothes, and follow me."

John and Rose shared a confused look as Jade bounded to the table, deftly stuffing handfuls of rings and gems into her pockets. After a moment, they followed suit.

"This is your final warning!" The bullhorn-weilding FBI agent shouted. "Come out or we're coming in!"

Dave opened the door a crack. "I want your word that you're not gonna open fire," He shouted. "We're comin' out, we won't put up a fight, but if you try to shoot us, we're gonna take down as many of you as we can before we go."

There was a brief moment of silence before the bullhorn squawled to life again. "Keep your hands where we can see 'em and we won't shoot, Strider. You have my word on that," the voice replied.

Nodding to the others, Dave pushed the door open the rest of the way with his foot and stepped out, his case hanging by a strap from his shoulder and his hands held high. When nobody fired, Jade followed shortly after, Rose and John pulling up the rear. With the exception of Dave, each of them was visibly loaded down with gold and jewelry.

As they filed out, the cops converged on them, surrounding them. Dave took a fast mental note of each one and their assorted equipment as the head inspector sauntered up, glaring down at him.

"You really thought we weren't expecting you to pull something like this, Strider?" the man spat. "Although I gotta admit, your little bait-and-switch was well played. We almost lost you thanks to that decoy car."

Dave raised an eyebrow. "The fuck you talkin' about, decoy car? I din't have a decoy car planned." He could hear movement behind them: They already had Rose handcuffed, and were trying to get cuffs onto John's big wrists.

"Don't play dumb," the inspector smirked. "Ah, well. We'll get our answers outta you later. What's in the case?"

Dave smirked. "At the risk of being one big fuckin' cliché... your worst nightmare."

The world seemed to come to a grinding halt around him as everything happened at once.

Dropping his hands to his side, his left hand sliding down the top of the case and popping the latches open, he shouted "NOW!" as his right hand pushed open the case, reaching in and grasping familiar cold metal. He leapt backwards and pulled, the case splitting in two as the broken Caledscratch arced forward and split the revolver the inspector was bringing up vertically, the unfired bullets tumbling to the ground, slow as mollasses.

(one)  
and he was arcing over Jade and John and Rose as they crouched and his halfblade licked out to slice into two more revolvers rising from holsters and twisting to strike flat against their heads  
(two)  
and he twisted his body, kicking two more in the shoulder as his hand came down to direct his balance and motion from atop John's back and stabbing the Caledscratch down to sever the chain binding Rose's hands  
(three)  
and he curled up and struck three more with the flat as he completed the flip  
(four)  
and his feet touched ground only to slide outward in a twirling split, his heel catching one man's leg and his shin another  
(five)  
he pushed off of the ground and flipped over and thrust his hand into a man's sternum and felt a _crack_  
(six)  
his feet touched ground and time was moving again as he planted one foot in another person's chest and kicked off, roundhousing him and the fellow next to him in one move.  
"Go!"  
John barreled forward as Jade leapt aside, bringing up both arms and bodily flinging the inspector over the hood of one of the squad cars as Rose and Jade sprinted for the farthest forward vehicle. 

Dave darted forward as a man on the edge of his swath of destruction raised a rifle, and his blade arced down as the hammer of the rifle struck and the barrel was cleaved, the bullet _whang_ing off of Caledscratch and up into the sky as he finished his spin and dropped his elbow into the crook of the man's neck, dropping him like a ragdoll.

Twirling the blade, Dave allowed himself a smirk at the gawping inspector as he walked past the downed agents and pointed the sword at him. "Keys," he barked, and the man fumbled a set from his pocket, dropping them.

Dave's knee came up as the man's head went down to pick up the keys, and he lurched backwards from the impact. Picking up the keys, Dave tapped the flat of the Caledscratch on his shoulder. "I'd suggest putting some ice on that," he snarked as he walked past the inspector, who lay on the ground clutching his nose.

With a skilled overhand lob, he passed the keys to John and hopped the broken fence, sliding into the back seat of the car as John cranked the engine. Rose stared at him, awestruck, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "Long story," he said simply as the car lurched to life and drove away.

\---

Jade rubbed at her wrist as the car jerked down a long dirt road, glancing over at Dave with a worried look. He hadn't said much more than 'in a minute' every time Rose or John tried to ask a question.

He only stared at the Caledscratch's record, the blade propped upright on the floorboard with his hands on the hilt, as if he were expecting it to speak to him.

"Dave?" She reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. "Dave, if we're going to come clean about this--"

"I know." He sighed, and pulled off his sunglasses. "Rose... John... this is going to sound really fuckin' stupid, but hear me now and believe me later."

He began to relate the story of SBURB, his eventual transformation into Davesprite, and the task that the Dark Gods had given to him and to Jade. The two remained silent throughout his explanation, Rose staring at her hands in her lap, John's attention affixed on the road that they sped down.

"...so you're not... our Dave?" Rose asked when he finished. 

He shook his head. "I am, but I'm not. This is his body, and his mind, but Davesprite is the one in control. Just like Jade's the same Jade as you remember, but she's being controlled by the other Jade."

"An' dat thing yah holdin', that 'Caledscratch', is tha key tah getting you two outta here?" John asked, glancing up into the rearview. 

Dave's eyes met his for a moment, and he looked away; John thought he saw a flicker of orange in his eyes. "Yes."

"So how do you use this key?" Rose asked. Dave glanced over to Jade, who nodded after a moment.

"We're not entirely sure," She said, "but the key will be different in each universe. When we move from world to world, the key will go with us, and whatever it replaced will return. In this case, Dave's sword."

Silence reigned again, save for the roar of the motor.

"The key will serve to help us sever the hold the Darkness has on this world," Jade said after a moment. "That's all I know. The Gods wouldn't tell me any more, for fear of being caught."

Dave sighed, flopping back in the seat. "Great. Jus' fuckin' great. Got the key, blew our cover, don't know what to do now. Aren't I one hell of a hero."

John laughed from the frontseat, and Dave raised an eyebrow.

"We're tha bad guys, Dave, 'member? Stealin' from tha law, assaultin' tha FBI, hijackin' trains-- we're a buncha crooks," he chuckled.

Rose uttered a sigh, giving John a light slap on the arm. "We're not 'crooks', we're 'enterpreneurial opportunists', John. Crooks break the law. _We_ simply modify the rules to suit our needs."

Dave smirked. Even in another dimension, Rose was Rose.

"Is that a train?" Jade asked abruptly.

Off in the distance, running parallel to the road, a large passenger train chugged along its' tracks, oblivious to the rest of the world. "Looks like it," John shrugged.

"Pull up to it," Dave said after a moment. Jade glanced over at him. "What're you thinking?" She asked.

"Just a hunch," he said softly.

\---

James Swift was an old hand on the rails. His track record was spotless, and today was his final day on the rails. He doffed his conductor's cap as he stood smoking on the caboose of the 9:20 train, running a hand through touseled salt-and-pepper hair.

Off in the distance, he could see a car on the road running parallel to the train tracks. Automobiles were a continuing fascination to him; he had a feeling they'd eventually replace trains as a means of transporting people and goods. It was just a matter of 'when'.

The car appeared to be moving rather fast, but he paid it no mind, taking a drag on his cigar and gazing up at the clouds. His wife would be glad to see him no longer running the rails... he'd been lucky enough to have only lost one finger over the years. Didn't need that left middle finger anyway.

He looked down, and almost choked on his cigar.

The car that he had seen so far off was on the tracks and catching up wtih the train rather quickly. This close, he could see that it was some sort of police vehicle--

_SHKTANK!_

The roof of the car suddenly had what looked like a giant letter opener poking out of it. The blade worked its' way through the roof like a can opener, and a foot launched the unlidded roof off of the car, leaving only windows and supports.

A ginger-haired young man climbed forward in the car, switching positions with the broad-shoulded fellow in the driver's seat. 

The car jerked momentarily as control was passed over, but caught up with the train again, the nose of the car bumping into the back coupling of the train as the broad-shouldered fellow climbed over the windshield and helped a lovely blonde woman in a violet pantsuit up beside him. She hopped the rail with ease to land beside James, and gave him a smile that chilled him to the bone.

"Mind if we join you?" She asked in a sweet, debonair lilt. He shook his head, wide-eyed, and held up his hands. "N-not at all," James stammered, and stepped aside as a lithe girl dressed in men's clothes with long black hair hopped over the rail, followed shortly by the broad-shouldered man.

He looked back toward the car, and briefly wondered what the ginger-haired man was up to when he abruptly leapt up with the grace of a dancer, flipping over the windshield and rolling down the hood. His feet planted on the front bumper as the car begain to drift away from the train, and he leapt, one hand outstretched, the other gripping the hilt of a large broken sword.

The broad-shouldered man caught his hand and pulled him aboard easily, helping him over the rail. With an air of confidence, the young man adjusted his shirt, pushed his sunglasses back up over his emeraldine eyes, and nodded a greeting to James as he opened the door.

"We'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone," the black-haired girl said with a smile, and James found himself holding an extremely expensive-looking golden necklace studded with diamonds as the four entered the caboose.

He watched, dumbfounded, as the car veered off the tracks and down into a ditch. After a moment, he pulled the cigar from his mouth and flicked it onto the tracks.

His cigar case followed.

\---

"So why exactly are we now on a train?" Rose asked as Dave walked slowly down the hallway in the caboose, the Caledscratch held before him like a shield. He stopped, sliding the front passenger room open, and peeked inside.

"Because I have a hunch," he said at length, "that whatever we need this key for is either on the train, or will be." He stopped and looked back, stifling the urge to laugh at the sight of John taking up rather a large amount of space in the hallway.

"It's like... something was pulling, calling me here." He slid the door shut and sidled to the next passenger room further back, cracking it open. "Empty," He mumbled to himself, and shut it again.

"So--" "_Ow!_" "--sorry, Jade-- is dere a plan? Or do we--rrgh--just keep checking cars until we find what'cha looking for?" John wasn't really all that large, but the rail car certainly wasn't spacious. Dave looked back at him for a moment and sighed, sliding the third and final passenger room open.

"Empty," he mumbled. "I don't really have a plan," he admitted after a moment, waving for them to enter the passenger room. Rose slipped into the room easily, John scooting up to duck in and sit down next to her. Jade followed shortly after, and Dave swung into the room, sliding it shut and sitting beside Jade.

"But here's a plan anyway: you guys hang out here." He spun the Caledscratch up sideways and handed it to John, who took the hilt gingerly. "I'll poke around, see if I can find anything. No reason to drag you guys into this shit."

As he stood to go, a ruby bounced off of the back of his head, and he yelped, whipping about with an indignant glare. Rose picked it up calmly and pocketed it again. 

"Trying not to 'drag us into this shit' would've helped three hours ago when you woke up," she said flatly. "However much I agree with the idea that one person searching is easier than four in a place like this, we're in this together, David, whether you like it or not." She smirked. "So deal with it."

Dave sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Right, right. I swear, you could be a fuckin' queen in one of these universes and you'll still be you, Rose," he snarked, and deflected the ruby with his hand as he swung out of the room and slammed the door shut. Wincing, he shook his hand rapidly as he picked up the ruby and dropped it into his pocket.

Sliding the door back open a crack, he poked his head in. "If I'm not back in five minutes and you don't hear any asskicking, come runnin'." With that, he left the three alone, slipping out the front of the caboose and hopping across the coupling to the next car.

\---

"So, uh... what's yer relation ta Dave, in yer universe?" John asked after a few moments of silence.

Jade looked up from where she was idly examining a kumquat-sized sapphire in her hand with a surprised look on her face. "I, uh, what?" She stammered, blushing faintly.

A knowing smile played at Rose's lips. "I believe John is asking you whether you're as infatuated with your Dave as our Jade is with ours," she suggested after a moment. The smile grew with smug satisfaction as Jade's blush brightened and she began to find the pinstriping on her pants extremely interesting.

"I, well.. um... I suppose..." She began to worry at the hem of a sleeve. "I... guess I kinda did like him... a lot... he's a really cool guy, y'know? And it's not like he even really tries to do it, he just _is_, Like everything he ever does, he's just naturally that good."

John tilted his head. "Yeah, that seems ta be standard Dave, then," he said after a moment. "Kinda funny seein' you so bashful though, Jade. Guess yer not so outgoing in other worlds, eh?"

Rose shook her head as Jade's blush turned even deeper. "It's not that she's not outgoing," Rose said after a moment. "You're still a child in the other world, aren't you?"

Jade nodded slowly. "I'm thirteen," she said after a few seconds, her blush fading a bit. "Or I was." When she looked up, the confusion on their faces was apparent.

"Um, well... y'see, I'm kinda... dead."

Another pregnant pause, and John cleared his throat. "Kinda, um, stuffy in here," he muttered, and reached over to slide the window open.

\---

Dave refused to be worried that he would be found. Someone had come into the cargo car mere moments after he entered the car; he was sprawled against the wall behind a pair of boxes. The footsteps faded toward the front of the car, and after a moment, he heard the door open, then shut again, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Musta been that conductor," he mumbled to nobody in particular as he worked his way out from behind the boxes. He couldn't feel any sort of pull toward anything in this car... not even elsewhere in the train. Whatever drew him here, it certainly wasn't drawing him any more.

An overwhelming sense of dread began to claw its' way into his thoughts. What if he'd jumped the gun? What if he was supposed to find another way out of that situation, and not use the Caledscratch until they got to the train? Maybe this whole 'key' business was like those stupid choose-your-own-adventure games.

He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Great. Now I'm second guessing myself. Fuckin' stupid," He grumbled.

** _DAVE...._ **

"What the fuck?" He whipped about, trying to find the source of the sound. It was as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at once.

** _WE KNEW WE WOULD FIND YOU HERE, DAVE..._ **

"Awesome, so show yourself, whatever you are," he sneered. "Or at least quit fuckin' with me." The cargo car was too cramped; he wouldn't be able to fight properly in there. Looking around, he spotted a ceiling hatch and deftly leapt up a stack of boxes.

** _WE ARE AFRAID WE CAN NOT DO THAT, DAVE..._ **

He fumbled with the lock on the hatch, and grit his teeth in frustration. "Great, so you're spoutin' fuckin' Space Oddessey quotes. I swear to whatever Gods might listen, if I have to plug my damn sword into some fucking monolith or some shit I'm gonna--"

** _YOUR GODS WILL NOT HELP YOU, DAVE..._ **

"Fuck you, I don't need the help of any Gods to kick your ass. Even if you don't have an ass. I'll carve one out of your face and kick it." If he could just keep the voice occupied and talking long enough to get the damned lock open...

** _EVEN WITH THE KEY YOU CAN NOT DEFEAT US, DAVE... WE ARE TIMELESS, DAVE..._ **

"And I'm the Knight of Time," he snarled, and whipped his foot up, slamming his heel into the lock in an almost vertical kick. The lock flew off the latch, rattling behind some boxes, and he swung the hatch open. "So fuck you."

** _YOU CAN NOT ESCAPE US, DAVE..._ **

Climbing out onto the top of the train, he snarled. "Th'fuck's with you saying my name all the time, anyway? If you're only talking to me, whatever the hell you are, I'm pretty sure I ain't forgotten yet."

_ **YOU HIDE YOUR FEAR WITH HUMOR, DAVE...** _

"Fear? Psh." He slammed the hatch shut and scrabbled toward the back of the train car. "I've heard scarier ghost stories from Egbert, and he couldn't scare spots off a zebra." A quick hop and adjustment for wind turbulence, and he was on the roof of the caboose.

** _THEN WHY DO YOU RUN, DAVE? WHY DO YOU AVOID YOUR FATE, DAVID STRIDER? WE ARE COMING FOR YOU... WE ARE HERE FOR YOU... WE ARE--_ **

"Annoying the fuck outta me is what you are, now show yourself or I'm gonna WHOA!" Instinct told him to turn around. Luck dictated that he did so soon enough that he saw the tunnel looming far enough away that he was able to drop flat on the roof, stone archwork whistling by his face not twelve inches away from him.

When blackness gave way to blue skies again, he nervously sat half-up, surveying for anything else that might take his head off. No need to reenact that scene from Speed. This wasn't even his body. "Nice try, cockass," he snarled. "I'm not fallin' for that old trick."

** _WE WOULD NOT HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!_ **

The rasping, gurgling black voice was coming from behind him.

He turned around just in time to see a black mass arcing up from beside the train toward him, and jerked his head to the right, a spike of darkness barely scraping his cheek. Another spike shot out from the mass, and he turned sideways to avoid taking it in the shoulder.

"That all you got?" He sneered.

The spikes converged behind him and swept down, knocking his legs from under him. With an undignified yelp, he struck the roof of the caboose.

\---

"...so you're now a part of him?" Rose asked. She and John were a bit taken aback by Jade's nonchalant explanation of her death, and subsequent deal with the Dark Gods.

"...in a way, yes," Jade said after a moment. "I'm still myself, my soul is my own, but... my dreamself has merged with his. Or it did. When he became Davesprite, I was... pulled into his real body." She fidgeted. "I'm aware of how he felt about me... and feels about me, although I can't really know his thoughts. Only his feelings."

Rose tilted her head. "So then no matter what, you know how he's feeling? For instance, if he were sad, you could tell, even if he was fooling everyone else?"

Jade nodded. "I also know where he is because of it. I can sort of... feel where he is. So--" She gasped, her eyes widening.

"What? What is it?" John was on his feet and practically halfway out the door already when Jade's hand caught his. He blinked owlishly at her.

"Not that way," she said after a second. "He's above us."

As one, the three looked up toward the ceiling, just in time to hear a resounding _thump_.

_ **WE HAVE YOU NOW, DAVID STRIDER!** _

Worried looks were exchanged. Wordlessly, John handed Jade the Caledscratch and stepped out of the way.

\---

Dave didn't bother wasting time with the pain of landing hard on his shoulder. His attention snapped toward the front of the train, and toward a metal scaffolding arch that was looming close. He grit his teeth, curled up, and handsprung into the air.

It felt like time slowed again as the scaffolding whistled by underneath him. His feet touched roof and he landed in a crouch, immediately leaping into the air again as the darkness melted low to avoid the scaffold and lashed blades of shadow at his feet.

Spreading his arms, Dave let wind pressure carry him halfway to the shadow and rolled as he landed, turning his roll into a sideways tumble to avoid another lashing blade from the vaguely humanoid black mass. Avoiding it wasn't hard to do, but if he didn't find a way to fight back soon, he was going to run out of time.

_ **YES, DAVID STRIDER... YOU ARE BEGINNING TO SEE... WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE! GIVE YOURSELF TO US, DAVID STRIDER!** _

"Go fuck yourself," he snarled, and hopped over another low-lashing blade; throwing his hands out for momentum, he spun himself horizontal, barely avoiding another two spikes aimed at his midsection and chest, and grabbed at the blackness.

It felt like grabbing a handful of tongue, a slimy, hot thing that slipped under his grip. Grimacing and fighting the urge to gag, he pulled hard, but the shadow pulled back even harder, and he found himself kited into the air.

With a yank, he shot down from above with a drop-kick to the center of the black mass. It felt remarkably like striking a man in the chest, and for a brief moment, the shadows gave way to the pained, frightened eyes of the inspector.

With a snarl, Dave flipped back off of the shadow mass and released the shadow tentacles, wiping his hands on his pants as he braced himself against the wind.

_ **NOW YOU SEE, DAVID STRIDER... YOU CAN NOT DEFEAT US, EVEN WITH YOUR SO-CALLED 'KEY'... YOU CAN NOT DESTROY THAT WHICH LIES HIDDEN IN THE HEARTS OF ALL BEINGS...** _

"So, what, is this some Kingdom Hearts bullshit? 'Bluh bluh I'm a huge fuckin' deal, I'm the darkness in the hearts of humanity, bluh bluh' fuck you, you ain't telling me what I can and can't do," he snapped.

"Dave!" A voice barely audible over the wind, and he whipped about to see Jade running toward him with the Caledscratch in hand. She shouted a warning, and he dropped flat as a black tentacle whipped past him, wrapping around her wrist and tugging hard.

The halfblade spun into the air as she fell, and the tentacle released her, lashing out for the sword as she scrabbled at the roof of the train, momentum and wind pulling her off the side. For a brief moment, her eyes met his, and he reached out toward her futilely before she disappeared over the side.

The Caledscratch flared a bright orange and the half-blade transformed to its' full blade state as it whipped through the air, and the tentacle exploded in a haze of black upon contact.

Dave stood upright as the sword caught the wind and arced back down, and struck his hand out, catching the hilt of the sword and spinning himself to face the shadowed being with a flourish.

His eyes burned with orange heat behind his shades.

_ **NO MATTER HOW ANGRY YOU ARE, YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT US, DAVID STRIDER!** _

The black mass lashed out a tentacle-spike toward him. A flick of his wrist, and it exploded in a puff of smoke as he began to walk toward the dark being.

_ **EVEN IF YOU SHOULD BANISH US FROM THIS WORLD, WE ARE NEVERENDING. WE WILL FIND THE TRUE WORLD, DAVID STRIDER!** _

Another tentacle, and another flourish. Yet another puff of smoke. The blackness emanating from the man was practically nothing more than a silhouette aura as Dave stopped a few feet away, raising the Caledscratch high.

_ **WE WILL CLEANSE ALL OF EXISTENCE OF YOUR WRETCHED KIND! EVERYTHING YOU FIGHT FOR IS IN VAIN! ALL SHALL PERISH BENEATH THE MIGHT OF--** _

"Shut the fuck up."

The blade came down, and the shadows exploded into nothingness. 

The inspector stood, staring dumbstruck at Dave, the broken edge of the Caledscratch close enough to his face that he could feel the heat from the blade as it erupted with orange flame and transformed in his hand.

When the light faded, he held a large, ornate orange key, the head shaped like the crossguard of the Caledscratch.

He turned, pressing his shades closer to his eyes, and silently walked away from the inspector. A few feet away, he stopped, and half-turned, his eyes hidden by the glare off his shades.

"Get inside before you get scabbed off on a tunnel or something." He continued to the front of the car and hopped down.

Carefully, the inspector climbed down the ladder on the back of the car and curled into a ball on the back step of the caboose, whimpering to himself about voices and ghosts and angels and demons.

\---

Dave sat in the hallway of the caboose, his arms folded on his knees and his face pressed into the cotton of his shirt. His eyes burned, and his breath was hitching in his throat. Twice, now, she'd trusted him to save her. Twice, now, he'd failed her... and this time there was no second chance, no bringing her back.

It'd torn him up to watch her die the first time. And now this... all for some stupid goddamn key... with a scream of rage, he flung the Caledkey down the hallway.

It bounced a few times and rattled to a stop at the door to their room.

He didn't look up when he heard the door slide open, or when he heard light footsteps coming his way. He pressed his sunglasses against his eyes and set his jaw. He wasn't about to let Rose see him cry.

He felt, rather than heard, the presence of someone at his side; he felt that person crouch beside him. Felt a bare hand and a silken glove take his hand and press the key into the palm. 

"We can't get home if ya go throwin' these around, ya know," Jade's voice whispered into his ear.

His head snapped up, and he stared at her like a deer in headlights. She smiled, and waved the bare fingers of her left hand at him. Her glasses were missing and her hair was a mess, but she was otherwise perfectly fine.

"Good thing John couldn't breathe in that stuffy ol' room, yeah?" She said, and sat on the floor beside him, her shoulder brushing against his. "Lost a glove when he almost dropped me, but he got me in just fine. Keeps sayin' he owes me some new glasses though."

Dave stared at her for a few more moments, and she flushed. "What? Yer makin' me nervous, Dave," She mumbled, staring down at her lap.

He poked her in the shoulder, and she winced, looking at him. He poked her again. "Nyeeeeeh, stoppit," she whined, and slapped at his hand.

The next thing she knew he had pulled her practically on top of him in a crushing hug. She yelped in surprise, and after a moment returned the hug with a sigh.

"...sorry," Dave whispered into her hair, and she chuckled. "Don't be," she said softly.

\---

As the train pulled into the station, four individuals slipped off of the back of the train, past a shellshocked FBI inspector with a shallow cut on his forehead and a misaligned nose. With practiced ease, the four blended into the crowds of people on the platform, eventually finding someplace to stand out of the way of prying eyes.

Dave looked down at the key in his hand, then looked up at the others, who were watching him expectantly. After a moment, he shrugged. "No idea what to do now," he admitted, and glanced at Jade, who smiled.

"Each key corresponds to a aspect of your life, Dave," she said after a moment. "With each one you find, you'll gain greater control of your power throughout the universes we'll be visiting."

He looked down at the key. "Aspects of my life, huh," he mumbled. "A sword... a key..."

"Every key needs a keyhole," Rose said, and realization dawned on Dave's face. He stepped back from the others, and held the key up to the light.

"I sure as hell hope this thing waits for me to pull it out before it changes back, or the other me's gonna have problems," he said calmly as he turned the key toward him and gripped it with both hands.

Jade placed a hand on his shoulder, and nodded to him, and he brought the Caledkey home to his chest.

John and Rose shielded their eyes from the eruption of orange light. When it died down, for a brief moment, a spectral Davesprite stood before them, Dave's body slumped on the ground with a sheathed katana in hand. Jade was curled up at his side, her head resting on his shoulder; the both of them were sleeping peacefully.

Davesprite nodded to Rose and John. Rose returned the nod and John gave a half-salute, and Davesprite disappeared in a flash of light, a single orange feather drifting lazily down onto Dave's head.

With a groan, Dave's eyes fluttered open, and he rubbed at his face. A faint noise from his shoulder told him Jade was waking up as well. Looking up, he blinked blearily at John and Rose. "What the..."

Jade stretched, yawning, and looked around. "Where are we?" She asked after a moment, patting herself down. "And where are my glasses?"

John and Rose helped them to their feet, straightening their clothes. "It's a long story," Rose said with a wry smile.

"Don't make much sense either," John chuckled. "But that's how all the good stories go, yeah?"

Dave and Jade shared a confused look as John laughed.

\---

Darkness... warmth... like the embrace of a loved one... he groaned and opened his eyes, blinking at the dark ceiling. Dave looked down, raising an eyebrow at Jade, whose head rested on his chest. She was dreaming peacefully. He vaguely recalled celebrating her eighteenth birthday with John and Rose at the bowling alley downtown...

They'd gone home early, since she had pulled an all-nighter the night before on a project for work. She was practically asleep on her feet by the time they got back; he'd helped her into her bed, tucked her in, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and she was out like a light. He went to bed after making sure Mutie had water.

He remembered waking up in the middle of the night to the feeling of her crawling into the bed, making a token effort to attempt to wake her from her sleepwalking, and passing out again.

_No, dammit, that's not what happened._ He scrunched his eyes up as he slowly became aware of the spectral memory of everything they underwent in that... gangster-universe. It wasn't a dream... he could still feel the tingling burn from using the Caledkey on himself...

He held a hand up in the twilight, and concentrated. With an orange flicker, the Caledscratch appeared in his hand, just as it would when summoned from his Strife Specibus before. Another thought, and it was banished away.

With a sigh, he let his hand fall. He knew this was another alternate world... he supposed he could think of it as a 'save point' in this stupid little dimensional game. He glanced down at Jade, who continued to snooze peacefully, a content smile on her face.

_What a fun, fucked up subconscious I have._

Well, maybe a few hours' rest wouldn't hurt.


End file.
